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Moving Forward Implementation Commission gets moving

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The Moving Forward Implementation Commission held its first meeting by conference call Dec. 17 – a time of introductions and presenting preliminary thoughts about what the commission is expected to do. The 2018 General Assembly created the 12-person commission when it adopted the recommendations of the Way Forward Commission, giving the new commission the authority to take “any and all administrative actions as necessary” to implement the Way Forward Commission recommendations. Four of the 12 members of Moving Forward (Mathew Eardley, Cliff Lyda, Adan Mairena and Jo Stewart) served on the Way Forward Commission, and four (Deborah Avery, Eric Beene, co-chair Marco Grimaldo and James Tse) on the All Agency Review Committee. Three others – co-chair Larryetta Ellis, Madeline Alvarez and Jacqueline Cummings– were commissioners to the 2018 General Assembly, and Rachel Sutphin served as a young adult advisory delegate at that assembly. The co-moderators of the 2018 assembly, … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Moving Forward Implementation Commission

PC(USA) A Corporation covers strategic direction, finances as board meeting concludes

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LOUISVILLE – The board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation moved swiftly through a series of actions Dec. 14, heard positive a third-quarter financial update and spoke by conference call with the leadership of the Moving Forward Implementation Commission. The Moving Forward Implementation Commission – which the 2018 General Assembly created in approving the recommendations of the Way Forward Commission – will hold its first meeting via conference call Dec. 17. On the final day of its Dec. 13-14 meeting, the A Corporation board also heard a plea from Mike Miller, chief financial officer for the PC(USA), that it move quickly with strategic planning – to give a sense of direction of what the board wants the A Corporation to accomplish in 2019. That could include, for example, a clearer sense of the A Corporation operating budget; its structure, such as which employees work for the A Corporation and which for other agencies; and scope of services, including how … [Read more...]

Tagged With: A Corp

Children share asylum journey through art

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This weekend, Gregory Cuéllar will go to the border again to see the faces of the children. Cuéllar, an assistant professor of Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, has been working with the children of asylum-seekers — meeting at the bus station in McAllen, Texas, with children just released from detention and helping them use art to tell their stories of exile, journey and home. Cuéllar will go back to McAllen with Austin seminary students from Dec. 14-16 as part of a “Wall of Welcome – Interfaith Caravan of Hope” witness at the border, organized by Mission Presbytery in Texas. The witness is expected to include preaching from J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); an update from Sr. Norma Pimentel of the Sacred Heart Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, where asylum-seekers are cared for each day as they are released from detention; and the insights of Vilmarie Citrón-Olivieri, co-moderator of the 2018 General … [Read more...]

Tagged With: immigration • refugees

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation frames plans: hire president, translation services and other initiatives

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LOUISVILLE – The board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation voted Dec. 13 to form a search committee for an A Corporation president — a position the board is legally required to have, but for which a precise job description is still being developed. The board is also getting started on a range of other initiatives – including figuring out how to live into the mandate from the 2018 General Assembly to design “a systematic approach” to providing translation services for the denomination, staffed appropriately and housed in Shared Services. At this second meeting of the restructured A Corporation board, being held Dec. 13-14 in Louisville, the board is trying to sort through a number of issues of authority, responsibility and its relation to the PC(USA) national staff. “We’re building the plane while we’re flying it” is how board co-chair Chris Mason, a ruling elder from New York, puts it. The 2018 General Assembly changed the composition of the A Corporation … [Read more...]

Tagged With: A Corp

“Welcome letter” sent to new Moving Forward Implementation Commission by Way Forward and All Agency Review

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The leadership of the Way Forward Commission and All Agency Review Committee has sent a “welcome letter” to the new Moving Forward Implementation Commission. The letter is signed by the moderators and vice moderators of those entities, and also by Cynthia Jarvis, who served as moderator of the Way Forward Committee of the 2018 General Assembly. The 2018 General Assembly created the Moving Forward Implementation Commission to oversee high-level issues involving the denomination — giving it power to “take any and all administrative actions as necessary” regarding implementation of the Way Forward Commission’s recommendations. That action followed a season of intense conflict at the top levels of the denomination — particularly reflecting disagreement between the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and the Way Forward Commission about the governance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, the corporate entity for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General … [Read more...]

Tagged With: All Agency Review • Moving Forward Implementation Commission • Way Forward Commission

Presbyterian leaders gather virtually to address immigration issues

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What are Presbyterians doing in response to the influx of asylum-seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border? How can Presbyterians help? A series of speakers addressed these issues during a Nov. 29 webinar convened by the Outreach to the World Committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board. Here’s some of what they had to say.  Changes in the asylum system. “What we’re experiencing right now is an erosion of our asylum system,” going back to 2014, said Teresa Waggener, an immigration attorney with the PC(USA)’s Office of Immigration Issues. Some elements of that, she said: The separation of families at the border in the summer of 2018. A slowdown in the number of people admitted at ports of entry to try to seek asylum, from several hundred a day per port of entry in the past to maybe 10 or 20 per day now. The announcement by President Trump that immigrants who enter the country irregularly – not at ports of entry – will not be allowed to seek asylum. In order to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: immigration

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